Now that the 2016 NASCAR season is dwindling down, players in the Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game are either unleashing their final starts of the “studs” in each Group, or they’re using the leftovers in those Groups and hoping for the best. The races here at Texas Motor Speedway are usually pretty easy to handicap, as the same drivers are usually the ones battling it out at the end. Jimmie Johnson has owned this place lately, though, so we haven’t seen a whole lot of different winners. This weekend, however, Johnson and Kyle Busch (who were co-favorites heading in) didn’t have great qualifying efforts on Friday and will have some work to do when we go green on Sunday.
At Martinsville 2 last weekend, our Fantasy Racing Online Yahoo! team ended up with 319 points with that very tame race. Because there weren’t many surprises, though, we didn’t gain much on the leaders and only jumped up to the 82nd percentile.
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Texas 2
Well, our plan for rostering the two best drivers here at Texas didn’t look too great after qualifying on Friday: Jimmie Johnson qualified back in 19th and Kyle Busch was the worst Chaser, ending up 24th. But with Fantasy NASCAR, it’s not about where you start, it’s where you finish, and we’re stuck with these two. Now, which is the better option? Both the #48 Chevrolet and #18 Toyota looked sporty on Saturday, although it seemed as though Kyle Busch was better on the short runs while Jimmie Johnson was faster on the long runs. And while we do see this race having long green flag runs, we think we’re going to have a late race caution and that should play into Rowdy’s hands. Plus, he’s still fighting for his Chase life, so we’re going to start Kyle Busch over Jimmie Johnson on Sunday and hope for the best (considering we have the latter ranked higher).
There’s no clear-cut favorite to lead the most laps on Sunday, but we think it’s going to be either Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, or Brad Keselowski. Obviously all three of those drivers will have a shot at the win as well, it just depends how the AAA Texas 500 plays out. Our gut says Kevin Harvick finally gets a win in the Lone Star State, but he’s really lacking on short run speed. If there’s a late caution, that #4 team could be in trouble. Matt Kenseth is the only other viable A Group option this weekend, but we don’t have him inside the top 5 heading into Sunday. He hasn’t had a top 5 at Texas since 2013.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Kevin Harvick, (2) Brad Keselowski, (3) Joey Logano, (4) Jimmie Johnson, (5) Kyle Busch, (6) Matt Kenseth, (7) Denny Hamlin, (8) Kurt Busch
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Texas 2
We made a last-second switch and replaced Austin Dillon with Kyle Larson on our Yahoo! team this weekend, and that turned out to be the wrong move. Dillon is on the pole for this weekend’s AAA Texas 500 and also showed some pretty impressive speed during the two practice sessions on Saturday. In our opinion, Austin Dillon is a legitimate top 10 threat here on Sunday, not to mention he should get the 10 bonus points for leading a lap.
As far as our roster, we have Carl Edwards, Martin Truex, Jr., and Kyle Larson all with 2 starts remaining, and then Kasey Kahne with 4 starts left. And while we do think Kahne is a very good pick in leagues that award points based on place differential, that isn’t the case in Yahoo!, so he’s an easy scratch.
Carl Edwards is using a brand new car this weekend and the #19 team is viewing this as a must-win situation. He showed top 5 speed in both practice sessions on Saturday and we really think Carl could break through and get a win here on Sunday. He’s been to victory lane three times in the Lone Star State and is currently on a four-race streak of top 10s here. So Carl Edwards will be one of our B Group starters this weekend.
Martin Truex, Jr. is going to be our second B Group starter at Texas 2. He qualified 12th but it’s very possible that the #78 Toyota is good enough to get into the top 5 and potentially challenge for the win on Sunday. Let’s not forget that he arguably had the best car here back in April. Truex had the best ten-lap average in happy Hour and is still trying to prove that the #78 team should have gotten a chance to win the championship this season.
Two B Group drivers to keep an eye on this weekend are Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman. McMurray has finished 13th or better in the last four Texas races and showed pretty good speed during the practice sessions on Saturday. Newman, on the other hand, has been getting better on the intermediate tracks as of late, and the #31 Chevrolet was consistently fast in both sessions on Saturday as well. McMurray could sneak out a top 10 finish on Sunday while Newman might be able to luck into one. Paul Menard starts up front but there’s a big difference between starting up front and finishing up front. Menard is the master at putting up one fast lap (in both qualifying and practice) and then disappointing on race day. Don’t fall for the trap. Kyle Larson is the ultimate boom or bust option this weekend, and more often than not he has been a bust here at Texas. He didn’t run many laps during Happy Hour on Saturday, and that should concern fantasy owners.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Carl Edwards, (2) Martin Truex, Jr. (3) Austin Dillon, (4) Jamie McMurray, (5) Ryan Newman, (6) Kasey Kahne, (7) Kyle Larson, (8) Paul Menard, (9) A.J. Allmendinger, (10) Trevor Bayne, (11) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (12) Greg Biffle, (13) Tony Stewart, (14) Danica Patrick, (15) Clint Bowyer, (16) Aric Almirola, (17) Casey Mears
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Texas 2
Coming into the AAA Texas 500 weekend, our gut said that Chase Elliott was going to have a great weekend here at Texas, and by great we mean win. And it certainly wouldn’t be that surprising if the #24 Chevrolet wound up in victory lane on Sunday. Chase had very good speed in both practice sessions on Saturday, and in Happy Hour he posted the 5th-best lap and the 2nd-best ten-lap average. So, because of that, we’re going to use our last Chase Elliott start this weekend with Ryan Blaney on the bench. Now, the #21 Ford has had a bunch of speed this weekend, too, but we’re majorly concerned with the fact that Blaney has made three Sprint Cup starts here at Texas and hasn’t finished better than 29th.
The only other potentially viable option in the C Group this weekend is Alex Bowman, although the #88 Chevrolet doesn’t quite have as much speed in it here at Texas as it has in the other recent races. Bowman should have a top 20 car heading into Sunday. If you’re really desperate and want to be different, Michael McDowell showed pretty good speed on Saturday and is suddenly becoming a top 20 threat on a weekly basis.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Alex Bowman, (4) Michael McDowell, (5) Chris Buescher, (6) Regan Smith, (7) Brian Scott, (8) Landon Cassill, the rest
